This invention relates to a foundation for a manufactured home, mobile home or trailer coach, and more specifically to a foundation that provides vertical support and longitudinal and lateral stability.
Manufactured homes, mobile homes or trailer coaches include long longitudinal support beams underneath. Typically, when the home or coach is installed, a plurality of vertical piers or jacks are placed under the beams to support them. Most piers or jacks require placement on a rigid ground pad so as to not sink into the ground from the loading.
Conventional piers do not provide resistance to longitudinal forces or lateral forces that may be exerted on the coach such as by strong winds or earthquakes. Consequently, additional bracing systems must be attached to resist these longitudinal and lateral forces.
Additionally, conventional piers are relatively expensive because they need to be adjustable under load. This requires strong and well machined parts.
Since all of these devices have to be installed in the field, it is desirable that they be simple to install, preferably by a single person, not require complex tools and not require any alterations to the present beams, such as drilling, that could deleteriously affect the strength of the beams.
This invention is a foundation for a manufactured home having first and second elongate support beams, each beam having a lateral flange. The foundation generally includes a ground pan for spreading out the load to a larger surface area to prevent sinking into the ground and for providing a anchor against horizontal movement, a cross brace assembly for supporting the beam and providing longitudinal bracing, and a lateral brace assembly for providing lateral bracing.
The ground pan is disposed under the first beam and its brace assembly. The cross brace assembly includes front and back crossing braces of adjustable length, each having an upper end pivotally connected to a connector attached to the first beam and each having a bottom end pivotally supported by the ground pan. A U-bolt connects the braces at their cross point for preventing relative angular movement between them.
The lateral brace assembly includes a lateral brace of adjustable length having a top end pivotally connected to a lateral connector attached to the second beam and a bottom end pivotally connected to the ground pan.
Other features and many attendant advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon a reading of the following detailed description together with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout.